Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I’m sure you have witnessed tearful goodbyes at airports or train stations or in driveways or even at bedsides. Separation with ones we love is difficult, even if the cause of the separation is something wonderful like leaving home to get married, or sending young adults off to college or sending missionaries to foreign places, right? But what a contrast is the separation when someone walks out of prison free, or someone leaves a hospital when their diagnosis had been terminal! Today, let’s experience together the greatest deliverance separation of all time.
Yesterday I left you pondering a midnight crisis. The angel of death had come, as Moses had promised, and death of firstborn sons was being experienced in families all across Egypt. The wailing was heard in every neighborhood, every city and village in Egypt. I’ve lived in a place where loud, prolonged wailing is the normal response of all loved ones, as soon as they hear news of death. It can be gut wrenching to witness.
The Exodus record says: “During that night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up, leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” (Exodus 12:31,32) Look at this scene my friends. The most powerful man in the world is broken hearted, his eldest son is dead. The Pharaoh, the strongest leader of the most powerful nation in the world at that time, is now a defeated leader of a ravaged Egypt. The countryside is almost unrecognizable after the onslaught of locusts and hail and the death of livestock. Millions of Egyptians are terrified. What they have experienced in these plagues is beyond anything anyone has ever seen anywhere in the world before or since. Their national and local leadership have failed them badly. Survival now will be a challenge, and rebuilding to the Egypt which once was, almost unthinkable.
But in one region of Egypt, the region of Goshen where the Hebrew slaves live, it is entirely different. These people are all descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob’s 12 sons moved their families from Canaan, the land God had given to Abraham, down to Egypt more than 400 years before, because famine had struck in Canaan. Amazingly one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, had been sold by his older brothers as a slave to a traveling caravan which had brought Joseph to Egypt and sold him there as a slave. Through a series of miracles, including Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh at that time, Joseph was made Prime Minister of Egypt responsible for famine preparation and then famine management. That’s when Jacob’s family moved to Egypt in order to survive the famine.
They settled in what the Pharaoh called ‘the best of the land’, Goshen. They soon forgot about Canaan and made Egypt their home. Time passed. 4 centuries of time! Generations were born, lived, grew old and died, and other generations were born. Soon those Hebrew descendants of Jacob were enslaved by the Pharaoh of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. Then finally one day Moses came saying he had an encounter with God and God was going to free these Hebrews because they were His people, He loved them and He was fully aware of their misery in slavery! These 10 powerful plagues were God’s way of proving His power and humbling Pharaoh to the point that finally Pharaoh said “GO, and take all your people and belongings with you…”
When Moses had instructed the Hebrews about how to prepare for the night the angel of death would come, not only had Moses explained about the blood of the slain lambs on the outside door frames of their homes, but he also had told them to pack up and be ready, for deliverance was coming that night! Therefore, that night when Moses returned from Pharaoh’s palace, back to Goshen, the people were ready! Can you even imagine my friends?
If you’ve ever packed to move, you understand!! Carts piled high with belongings, everyone choosing what to take and what to leave. Animals and children and food and clothing… oh my! And this wasn’t only one or two families, this was nearly 1 million people preparing to flee Egypt!!! Can your mind even imagine what that looked like that night? Go ahead, take a moment and walk around in the mayhem, listen to the shouting as parents try to corral their kids and gather up belongings, and listen to all the bellowing of animals almost in a frenzy! It’s crazy in Goshen my friends, crazy because Moses has just announced the Pharaoh has told them to go. . .they are free to leave Egypt with everything they can carry!
Here’s how Exodus 12 describes the scene: “The Egyptians urged the Hebrews to hurry and leave their country. ‘For otherwise’, they said, ‘we will all die!’ So the Hebrew slaves took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in cloths. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and they asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Hebrews, and they gave them what they asked for, so they plundered the Egyptians!” (Ex. 12:33-36) Can you picture it my friends? The greatest migration of people in all history.
The record says: “There were about 600,000 men on foot, besides the women and children. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.” (Ex. 12:37,38) Several times you’ve heard me use the number about 1 million Hebrews. Here is where I get that number. Do you notice it is not only Hebrew slaves that are fleeing Egypt, but ‘many other people went up with them.’? Who are these other people? Perhaps other slaves from other lands, maybe even some Egyptians who were friendly with these Hebrews. It is a huge mass of people and animals, all heading out of Egypt in the middle of the night, while the rest of Egypt is wailing and preparing to bury their dead!
We’ve stood there before, so let’s stand again on the Pharaoh’s palatial, overlook balcony, this time watching this miraculous scene, the Exodus. People, carts, animals as far as the eye can see, a gigantic movement of refugees rushing out of Egypt. But where are they going? How will they survive out in that desert? Most all of these people have never been out of Goshen where they live! And what will happen in Egypt without this huge workforce of Hebrew slaves?
My “Walking with Jesus” friends, all around the world, this exodus is one of the most significant events in all human history. For Jews in every generation since, this night has been for them and all Israel a national defining moment. The Exodus record says: “Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt. Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.“ There it is, God’s command that the Hebrew nation is to honor HIM with a memorial vigil, on the night of the anniversary of this event, every year, for the rest of time, no matter where they are living in the world!
Years later, when Moses was an old man, and all the adults who had fled Egypt that night had finally died, Moses stood before their grown children and made this profound declaration: “Ask now about the former days, long ago before your time, from the day God created mankind on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides Him there is no other...” (Deuteronomy 4:32-35)
As we close today, let’s walk along with this huge migration of people with all their belongings and the things they’ve been given by the Egyptians as they fled. Listen to their conversation, their shouts of joy. On this night there is no fear of tomorrow, no worry about the future. Freedom is overwhelming and their euphoria will not be diminished by the reality that they are leaving their houses and all that is familiar, and heading into everything unknown.
Out in front of this huge moving mass of humanity is one man, walking with a strong sense of confidence in God. Moses also has no idea what awaits them tomorrow or beyond. He only knows one thing. At that burning bush a few months ago, God had told him two very important things that I believe Moses kept repeating to himself: “I AM WHO I AM and I will be with you.” (Ex. 3:14) The Almighty God had delivered these 1 million Hebrew slaves, and this great God was with them, leading them out of Egypt.
And secondly, I believe Moses kept repeating these words God has spoken at that burning bush: “This will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt you will worship God on THIS mountain.” (Ex. 3:12) As Moses hiked out into the darkness that night, heading east, he kept his eyes straight ahead for far out there, over the horizon and the sand dunes, was the mountain where a burning bush had introduced Moses to the great I AM. And to that same mountain Moses was determined he would lead this huge throng of 1 million escaping Hebrew slaves! I can see Moses marching forward, resolute, never turning around to see if the people are scattering or if they are following, not concerned if their carts are stuck in the sand or if they are following, not worried about the animals keeping up the pace. . . this Moses is leading this miraculous people to the mountain to meet their God!!
Let’s walk along with him… watch him as he leads, the smile on his face as he imagines the reunion these people will have with the God he met at that burning bush! Do you have a similar enthusiasm and determination that you are leading your family toward this great I AM God and His Son, the Savior of the world, Jesus… even if you are walking through a dark time right now? Here’s a worship song that might have been the words Moses was saying as he led the people that night:
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 12:31-42.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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